Device for launching boats



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Shqsei; 1.

D. PIKE.

DEVICE FOR LAUNGHING BOATS.

Patented Feb. 18, 1896.

lnvenivl" 2 SheetsSheet 2.

(No Model.)

D. PIKE. DEVICE FOR LAUNGHING BOATS.

No. 555,018. Patented Feb. 18, 1896,

HURT-W RGRMIAM. FHGTO-LKNILWASHINBTON. I18,

UNITED STATES DANIEL PIKE, on NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA.

DEVICE FOR LAUNCHING BOATS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 555,018, dated February 18, 1896.

Application filed. June 24,1895. $erial No. 553,903. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, DANIEL PIKE, a citizen of the United States, residing at New Orleans, in the parish of Orleans and State of Louisiana, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Devices for Launching Boats; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make andvuse the same.

My invention relates to improvements in devices for launching or casting off boats from the sides of vessels while in motion. In appliances of this character it is important that the life-boat shall be released simultaneously from the suspending-tackles at the bow and stern, because if either end of the boat is released prior to the other end the boat is liable to be upset or swamped.

The object that I have in view is to provide a simple contrivance which will secure these results in an eflicient manner, the releasing devices being under the control of a single attendant, who can operate the same with ease and dispatch.

With these ends in view the invention consists in the combination of devices, and in the novel construction and arrangement of parts, which will be hereinafter fully described and claimed.

To enable others to understand my invention, I have illustrated the same in the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, and in which- Figure 1 is a perspective view showing a boat-launching appliance constructed in accordance with my invention. Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal sectional view through the boat, showing the releasing appliances. Figs. 3, 4, 5, and 6 are detached detail views of parts of the releasing appliances. Fig. 7 is a perspective view partly broken away to show the arrangement of the ropes for lowering the boat.

Like letters of reference denote corresponding parts in all the figures of the drawings, referring to which A designates the boat, which may be of any preferred construction, and which is provided at its ends with the water-tight compartments or tanks B B and along its bottom with a footboard 0, the latter being held in a raised position above the bottom of the boat, preferably by means of the transverse battens c.

The vertical walls of the compartments or tanks 13 B are provided with the stuffin g-boXes d d, which lie on a plane below the level of the foot-board. Through these stuffing-boxes, and beneath the foot-board, passes an endwise-movable bolt or rod E which extends longitudinally of the boat nearly throughout its length. This endwise-movable bolt may be made in a single continuous piece or it may be built up from a number of pieces suitably coupled together in a secure rigid manner. Said bolt or rod E is fitted in openings in short lugs or ports 6 rigid with the base-plates e that are suitably fastened to the bottom of the boat outside of and within the compartments or tanks B, and said rod or bolt E is capable of a limited sliding movement in these posts or lugs c. On the rod or bolt, at an intermediate point of its length, is fastened a collar or band f, from which proj ects an arm f that is fitted loosely in a forked or bifurcated short arm g of an operatinglever G, said lever being fulcrumed to a baseplate g fastened to the boat A close up to the rod or bolt E, whereby the arm f is adapted to properly engage with the lever. This lever passes through a slot g" provided in the footboard 0, and its free end is easily accessible at all times for the purpose of moving the lever to adjust the rod or bolt E.

In the top walls of the compartments or tanks B B, I out or form the vertical slots h 71. Through these slots h pass the vertical arms I J, one in each slot h and in each tank or compartment, and these vertical arms are practically concealed in and protected by the tanks or compartments. Each arm has its ends enlarged and formed with eyes t'j, and the eye-formed lower end of each arm is secured on the rod or bolt E between two of the guide-posts e e, which lie within the compartment or tank B, as shown by Fig. 2. The upper eye-formed end of each vertical arm projects above the slotted top wall of the tank or compartment in which said arm is partially housed, and in said upper eye, j, is secured a coupling-pin K. The coupling-pins K K on the two vertical arms project or extend in the same direction from said arms, the pins being shown as projecting beyond the right-hand edge of the vertical arms, and said arms and pins are all movable together with the rod or bolt E, whereby said pins may be simultaneously disengaged from the suspending-hooks by a single movement of the operating-lever G to detach and launch the boat without danger of swamping it.

In life-boats it is important that the compartments or tanks B shall be kept as free as possible from the ingress of water, and in adapting my launching or detaching appliance to boats of this character I employ the water-excluding hoods L L, which are fitted to the top walls of the tanks over the slots 71, provided therein for the passage of the vertical arm which is movable with the longitudinally-movable bolt or red. Each hood L is cast in hollow form, with a vertical transverse slot Z and the outwardly-extendin g flanges Z Z. The sides andends of the hood are closed except where the transverse slot Z opens through the sideand top faces of said hood; and the hood is fastened by screws or bolts which pass through the flanges Z to the top wall of the tank or compartment 13 in position to have the slot Z in the hood in vertical alignment with the slot h in the tank or compartment B. The upper end of the vertical arm I or J and the coupling-pin carried by said arm is housed within the hollow fixed hood, and said arm and pin are adapted to play or move within the hood when the belt or red E is operated to cause the eoupling-pin K to be projected across the slot Z in the hood or to be withdrawn wholly within the hood. These hoods serve to a great extent to exclude water from ontering the tank or compartment 13 and they also inclose and protect the arm and its coupling-bolt.

M represents the davits from which the boat is suspended. As is usual, these davits have the tackles m by which the boat may be hoisted or lowered, and I have also devised novel appliances by which the boat may be lowered by one man who occupies the boat. In this embodiment of my invention I provide a continuous coupling-bar N, provided at its ends with apertured lugs n a, through which lugs pass the studs or pivots n or provided on the davits M. This coupling-bar is thus supported loosely upon the davits, and it is readily applicable to or detachable from the davits.

Said eoupling-bar has a longitudinal slot or opening 0, which extends nearly the entire length of said bar, and in the slot is secured a longitudinal separating-plate 0, which operates to space or prevent the two cables from interfering one with the other. Said couplingbar is furtherprovided near one end with a looped guide and it has three separate shafts or arbors Q R S, spaced as shown. These arbors Q R S carry the guide-sheaves q q, 'r r, and s s, respectively, the sheaves q 9' 8 being in one side of the divided slot 0, and the sheaves q r s in the other side of the divided slot. A cable or rope T passes around the sheave q, thence around the middle sheave r, thence back to and around sheave q, and thence to and around sheave s, and thence through the guide 19, the end of said cable having the hook t. The other cable, U, has a similar hook it at one end, and it is passed around sheave s, thence around sheave 0', back to sheave s, thence carried to the sheave q, and back along the under side of bar N to and through the guide 1). It will be noted that the ends of the cables or ropes T U, having the hook i u, depend from opposite ends of the coupling-bar N, while the other ends of the ropes T U both pass through the guide 12, so that the two ends of the ropes T U can be grasped by one man to lower the boat from the davits. These hookst u are adapted to be fitted in the slots Z Z in the water-excludin g hoods L in the boat, and the coupling-pins are adapted to engage with said hooks to suspend the boat from the hooks, the tackles, and the davits.

The operation may be described briefly as follows: One or more men may station themselves in the boat, and one man grasps the ropes T U to lower the boat in a horizontal position. \Vhen the conditions are favorable for launching it is only necessary to raise the operating-lever G, thereby moving the bolt or rod E, the arms I J, and the pins K K all in the same direction, whereby the pins K are simultaneously withdrawn from the suspending-hooks. To hoistthe boat the rod or bolt E is reversed so as to project the pins K across the slots in the hoods, the hooks are fitted in said slotted hooks to engage with the pins, and the boat can now be easily hoisted to the davits.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination with a boat having its water-tight tanks or compartments B provided with the slots h, of the hoods fixed to said tanks and having slots in alignment with the slots 71. therein, the longitudinal belt or red E, an operating-lever connected to said. rod, the vertical arms arranged in the tanks, with their lower ends fastened to the rod or bolt E, and having their upper ends passing through the slots h and housed within the hoods, and coupling-pins fitted to the upper ends of said vertical arms and arranged within said hoods, said pins adapted to be projected across the slots in the hoods or to be wholly withdrawn into the hoods, substantially as and for the purposes described.

2. The combination with davits, of a coupling-bar supported by said davits and provided with a longitudinal divided slot and With a suitable guidej 19, near one end, the In testimony whereof I affix my signature sets of guide-sheaves Within the divided slot in presence of two witnesses. of said bar, and the cables or ropes T, U, having the hooks tyre, and arranged on the guide- DANIEL PIKE. 5 sheaves and in the guide 13 in the manner and itnesses:

for the purposes substantially as specified, H. P. LABATUR,

for the purposes set forth. V. I3. LANCASTER. 

